


resonance: the action movie we should've gotten

by momoda (shinranpo)



Series: nct's resonance: the action movie series we deserved [1]
Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe, Attempts of Writing Comedy, Comedy, M/M, Mafia NCT, descriptions of violence, please be nice this is my baby, violence??
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-20
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-03-17 10:15:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 19,060
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29591274
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shinranpo/pseuds/momoda
Summary: "everyone say welcome." taeyong smiles at the 21 men who were staring at the new additions like they've never seen people before. some were curious, some were cautious, some weren't the most impressed. the silence was deafening.one of the members in the front leaned forward, his hair moving with his lengthy body. he offers a small smile, "wassup? welcome to our team, you did a great job back there."another member peeps up from the back, this time, smaller than the first one. "the one on the left looks taller than ten hyung, we have another giant on our hands!" haechan snorts, earning a disapproving look from taeyong.ten quickly stands up from the opposite side, slapping his hands on the glass table, "shut the hell up, yangyang!"orneo, the seoul district of the byeol organization, gets new recruits. aka mafia nct2020.
Relationships: Chittaphon Leechaiyapornkul | Ten/Suh Youngho | Johnny, Dong Si Cheng | WinWin/Nakamoto Yuta, Jung Sungchan & Osaki Shotaro, Jung Yoonoh | Jaehyun/Kim Dongyoung | Doyoung, Kim Jungwoo/Wong Yuk Hei | Lucas, Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Mark Lee, Lee Jeno/Na Jaemin, Park Jisung/Zhong Chen Le, take their relationship as you will
Series: nct's resonance: the action movie series we deserved [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2173992
Comments: 10
Kudos: 125





	resonance: the action movie we should've gotten

**Author's Note:**

> this took too long of fantasizing 
> 
> \- was inspired by 2018 nct ( chenji's 'this or that' where they gave keychains to everyone' )  
> \- also inspired by the movie trilogy 'HIGH&LOW'   
> \- i made a whole pinterest [board](https://pin.it/4e8eQSw) of what they looked like

"so why are we stuck with volunteering recruiting again?" renjun sighs as he grips the car handles above him as jeno smoothly parks in the alleyway. 

chenle thumbs through a packets of information that taeyong had given them a couple hours prior, "taeyong hyung said that we had to find new recruits and then, johnny hyung then said we should try scouting at local fight clubs. we were stationed here." he juts his hand out from the back of the car to give the others copies. 

everyone in the car internally groans at the reminder, fight clubs. no one could argue against johnny's words. not when he spent the longest under the byeol organization and raised majority of the scrappy kids that he and the others turned into capable fighting machines. they never questioned his wisdom of the town that they patrolled in. they wouldn't. 

but, fight clubs. no one in the car had a good history with fight clubs. a good number of their tight knit gang came from these illegal fight clubs. all of them were picked from the streets and trained under cruel conditions to become entertainment for spectors. 

it just so happens that they are stationed to work in the same place where they first entered the scene, young and bright-eyed. luckily for them, a couple of keen eyed men had their eyes on the group that were proclaimed to be fighting naturals and purchased them for protection. taeyong had patted their heads, "you're one of us now. we'll protect you for as long as we breathe."

jaemin lets out a noise similar to groaning, "i seriously hate whoever took over the late boss, they keep on asking for more man power when training takes forever and we're doing fine even with the numbers we have. they're so fucking greedy, i'm surprised they haven't gotten blind from the money signs engrained in their pupils." haechan whoops in agreement.

jisung interjects from the middle of the car, "true but let's use this opportunity to help the ones who really need it! think of it positively!" 

jaemin coos in the background, "our jisungie~ as cute as always." 

jeno yawns, his eyes fluttering from the fatigue. seriously, at 4 am. he'll never miss the odd schedules that the underground fighting scene would run on. he turns off the car lights, making the foreign car seem inconspicuous and turns around to face the chaos that ensued after jaemin made a move to coddle jisung after his announcement. 

he whistles to get everyone's attention.

"hey!"

jaemin and jisung paused in their fighting/hugging. haechan, chenle, and renjun looked up from their laughing and watching. 

he gestures them to make a circle as best they can. "you heard chenle, johnny hyung trusted us to recruit here for a reason. he knows we know this place the best."

he looks around at the hesitant expressions that settled on the others' faces.

"i know, i know. this place isn't something that we all wished to come back to. but this time, we don't have to participate. we don't fight, we will never fight in there again. we go in, leave flyers and cards around and talk a bunch of mysterious shit to a couple of kids and we leave. remember, no fighting. no provoking and no answering anyone in there. remember we are the shadows, we don't take action. no more, no less. and then, we can go get some fast food or something before we go back and give a report." he stretches out the last sentence to picque the younger members' attention, to help bring back the light hearted atmosphere. 

chenle and jisung were already smiling. 

"okay," jeno whisper-shouts, turning his arm to the middle of the car. "yo dream!"

"let's go fighting!"

("honestly, our clothes are pretty flashy," jaemin muses. "i don't think we'll really fit in to the gritty look that they have going on here."

haechan adds from the trunk, "what are you talking about, you fit in perfectly."

"i hate you so much right now.")

\- 

"wait, so you asked them to go to that location?" ten raised a perfectly trimmed eyebrow. "but i don't get it, they were abused there, we had to rescue them from that place." 

johnny shakes his head, raising a hand to comb through his hair. he flopped down next to ten on the fluffy hotel bed. the two of them coincidentally had the same destination for a mission. ten had to go to a local business meeting and johnny had a stakeout with jaehyun. since they had some free time, the lovers decided to room together. "i know, it's just..out of us all, those six know that neighborhood the best. they know the other kids that they grew up with the best, they'll know which ones are the good fits for our team. jeno even talked to me about it privately, he insisted that they'll be fine. he said he wanted to give the group some closure and especially under their terms." 

a grim look on his face still gives away his concern. "trust me, i don't feel any better about sending them back there any more than everyone is. taeyong's face was broken when he gave jeno the assignment."

his boyfriend nods slowly in understanding, "i guess i get what you're trying to make happen. i'm just worried because yangyang said that he got a text from haechan that they were going back to their hometown." 

johnny stifles a laugh, "you and yangyang were together? without killing each other?"

although ten used to be yang yang's mentor when he trained, the duo were notorious for causing and being part of arguments that would involve the entire group. in the end, most of them were caused by yangyang. (mainly for embarrassing ten in business meetings). yangyang even started going on random sprees with johnny to even further annoy him.

"please, that man-child has nothing on me, he couldn't waterboard me even if he wanted to," ten scoffs. his eyes softened when johnny gave him a knowing look. "but turns out he's been having trouble with this new boss' rules and regulations for torture and punishment so he called me out to help him and he just mentioned it."

"oh, the new boss." johnny’s voice was flat, dripping in disapproval.

about half a year ago, their old boss upped and died- out of old age. everyone honestly expected it to be an assassin but no one cared enough to really investigated. he was replaced by a distant nephew that was apparently on a life long business trip. but it turns out barely anyone in the byeol organization agreed with any of the new leadership's decisions. none of them liked his haste in rolling more and more men in each of the branches and that included taeyong who oversaw the seoul district with his team. 

the last head of the organization wasn't an angel in the slightest, but at least he had a sense in business. doyoung complained that at least his leading wouldn't raise any sane person's blood pressure. and yuta adds that he didn't overwork the members and stretched them thin with assassination missions after assassionation missions. 

"yeah," ten sighs. "seems like no one likes him here."

"mm, yeah," the taller says. "he's wreaking havoc on all of us here." 

ten nods in response, "the new guy doesn't know how to do shit. he's gonna run this organization to the ground faster than it took to built it up."

"poor taeyong, he's looking more stressed every time he comes back for a debriefing. he's totally drained." a silent prayer for their leader, who is rarely seen at their home based in seoul. 

regarded as one of the higher ups in the organization, taeyong is forced to attend meetings and conferences that has him on planes more than his dinner table. although it breaks his heart, he still tries his best to communicate with them- either by calling or some sort of cryptic message that came with souvenirs wherever he was staying at the time. 

because of his constant absences, leading and managing the district was rotated. leaders of their specific groups were given responsibility, but most of the time, johnny and ten shared supervision. (yuta was always off doing something involving stalking a target and jeno was much too young).

"speaking of debriefing…since we're supposed to get new members some time soon so.." ten trails off as he recounts.

johnny grimaces at the new realization, "so we're gonna hold the entrance ceremony again. fuck, i hated that thing."

"babe, everyone hates that shitty garbage event."

the byeol organization heavily prioritized individual strength over any other trait that one can bring to it. so when the branches started to emerge into places like japan and china a couple of decades ago and more powerful people wanted to enter, the old boss came up with a test that would easily separate potential new members from the failures. 

recruits and recommendations were stationed in an isolated room, where they were given a small golden coin each. once given the signal to start, people were expected to collect at least five coins. every member was entered through this brutal elimination process, where they conquered their opponents (of course). you weren't given any rules nor any limitations, you were just expected to win. 

and win they did. 

the seoul district always made the organization's top gossip column whenever new recruits were introduced in the announcements whether it be the strange background of their employees or the astonishing time record. when taeyong had recommended a ragtag group of seven that emerged from the underground street that laid at the bottom of seoul's gangnam, people weren't expecting them to join as they did. 

jaemin, jisung, jeno, chenle, renjun, mark, and haechan collected 57 coins in total, all under 30 minutes. when kun and ten watched over the transferees from china; xiaojun, hendery, and yangyang- they defeated about 3/4 of the competition sent in from japan. even at the beginning yuta led them, like sicheng and doyoung that were taken in by taeyong, beating over 60 men. all of them had tremendous prowess and they were revered for their teamwork.

every single addition to neo, the nickname johnny gave them, proved their worth one way or another. in both bond and power.

ten ducks his head to lean it on his boyfriend's shoulder, "i just hope our gangnam dreamies are doing okay."

-

"i always hated this place," chenle sniffs. his face contorts in disgust when another man, obviously drunk, narrowly misses them on the way to a crowd forming in the other side of the room. this place was an ugly reminder of what they came from, what birthed them as fighters. the leery men who only come in here to show off how aggressive or violent they can be, the ones who still need to have some sort of control over something, gambling over results- it was all gross.

jeno turns around, his arms raised to keep them in a tight knit circle. he whispers, almost inaudible thanks to the loud yelling in every corner of the room, "okay so, we just drop these tags-"

he gestures to the smooth metal byeol tag that each of them were holding.

"-in different parts of this dump. you got that?"

they all nodded. jeno smiles proudly, "okay, go."

their makeshift group formation seamlessly dissolves into the bustling crowd.

chenle grabs jisung's arm, leading him towards the stairs- filled with strangers and passerby's who were talking amongst themselves. jisung almosts protests, but he lets the smaller boy make himself busy by growling at any bystander that looked at the pair funny. 

he sighs, "chenle, you're gonna end up getting us in trouble, stop trying to provoke anyone in a two meter radius." he looks around to see that they're continuing to go up the stairs. "where are we even going, we're supposed to be looking for-"

chenle waves his hand to dismiss him, "i wanna explore a bit! we haven’t been here in forever!”

he hurriedly sidesteps a couple of men who were dragging each other to probably settle some petty dispute outside. chenle skips up ahead and pushes the doors that lead to a rooftop. he waits for jisung to come near closer as they look over the bright city view that is only a faraway vision for places like this.

the two pushed their way through the crowd that stayed in a shapeless blob and sat on right side of the rusty edge.

"it still looks pretty," jisung whispers, his breath slowly turning visible in the cold winter temperature. 

chenle nods, "it does." if he squints hard enough, he could remember the place where taeyong and kun dragged them out of this dump and addressed their wounds. after jaemin and haechan stubbornly refusing to let anyone talk to jisung and chenle, kun gave in and just took them back to headquarters. 

jisung turns around, his eyes flittering around to find a couple of men standing on the other side of the rooftop. wary of their presence, he nudges chenle to get his attention. 

"stragglers." a group of men clad in black were whispering amongst themselves, formed in a circle. 

chenle makes an 'o' with his mouth and he pulls out the tag. a silent question, "do we?"

jisung snorts, "no, i'm saying to be careful, stupid. don't make any unnecessary loud noises. keep on looking for anyone we can bring in."

chenle wrinkles his nose at the insult but he listens. his eyes stay trained on their suspicious activity. 

their voices get louder, likely due to some sort of conflict.

"..what do you mean.. you know… no liberty.. making demands..." 

they turn to each other in confusion at the gaps of silence in between each words but made sure to stay quiet. they looked like two kids who were just messing around so they just have to stay still. they couldn't risk getting caught especially in a time like this. 

another speaks up. "fine.. take it.. we'll pick.. later.."

chenle's face scrunched in frustration, he couldn't hear a thing. for all they know it could be a drug deal or something much worse. he wanted to march up to them and just ask what their deal was but it was absolutely out of the question. johnny would have his head.

jisung had his eyes closed and was clearly concentrated. chenle shrugs, he'll probably have better luck with it. 

he stretches his arms upwards, leaning his body forward to crack more of his joints. he continues to move, unaware of how far he was really going until-

CRASH!

"chenle!"

jisung's shocked face pops up from the rooftop, looking down on where chenle laid on the ground in pain. before he could respond, the group of men scrambled- most likely due to chenle's loud fall bringing potential, unwanted attention to where they were standing.

jisung sighs and looks back at the older.

chenle winces, "sorry?"

jisung rolls his eyes after quickly glancing for any injuries. he still heaves his body over the ledge to jump down to reach his best friend. "it's fine, i heard enough, i don't think we need to worry about them-"

"what are you doing?"

chenle and jisung whip their heads around almost comically. a tall boy was standing from the corner of the building who couldn't have been older than the two of them. his face looked young but everything says otherwise. his doe eyes were still full of suspicion and hostility.the hood that he had draped over the top of his ruly hair only added to how intimidating he looked. 

both their eyes widened and chenle goes to speak first.

"um hello." he offers the stranger a hand but the taller only stared at it and then back at them. "i am donghyuck and this is mark lee right next to me-"

with his body frozen to not gain any unnecessary attention, jisung's eyes slowly slid over to the back of chenle's head and he raised an eyebrow, really? he could practically hear chenle agreeing, yep. 

the boy clears his throat. "okay, donghyuck and mark lee. mind telling me why you're here? this area isn't open to public."

chenle's eyebrows furrowed in an effort to lie once again. "because! because we were just scoping out the place, because we are new here."

"you're new here." he deadpans, his eyes fleeting over to jisung who almost cracked.

he repeats it again, as if he knew they were lying. "if you were new here then you would've known that the main highlight of tonight is occurring right now." he points at the door behind him. it was most likely a backdoor. 

"we did, we would just prefer a personal escort. also all those people in the main area were just bothering us too much, too dirty if you know what i mean. we would like a better vip seat."

jisung pities the future chenle who would have to keep up with the endless lies present chenle was weaving right now. 

the taller stiffened slightly when chenle said dirty but he eased and a sweet, saccharine voice replaced his sharp tone. "follow me then."

jisung looks at chenle in surprise, it actually worked? chenle looks back at him in glee. 

the exit was dark and only had a single light source. there were papers and glass shards littered on the floor, with wire cables hanging from the top. a group of couches were pushed into the corner, with first aid kits clattered around- most of them opened. there were a couple of people standing around, their eyes looking at the two suspiciously. 

one of them speaks up, "what's this, sungchan? who are they?" he was sitting at one of the couches, sharing a cigarette with one of the other guys behind him.

sungchan slows down, "they're viewers." he looks back at chenle and jisung.

"oh." it was hard to miss the surprise and question lacing the guy's voice. they looked young enough as it is. although jisung was taller than an average person, their baby faces did not convince anyone. 

sungchan was already at one of the doors at the end of the exit. "over here."

chenle speeds over quickly enough, disregarding jisung's worried glance. the younger could only follow him, looking around them cautiously.

but just as jisung could ask anything about where they were going, sungchan grabs chenle and puts him in chokehold.

"fuck," chenle coughs, his eyes flying towards jisung in a panic.

"okay, what are you doing here? i'm being serious. are you two spies the cops sent in? are you trying to steal some shit? spit. it. out." sungchan accentuates each of his words by pressing in tighter and tighter on chenle's neck. 

"we're not," jisung tries. he's trying to stay calm but seeing chenle scrunching his eyes in pain as he loses air is making his voice tremble. "we're not cops."

sungchan still looks unconvinced. 

"i- i can't tell you what we are exactly, but i promise you we aren't spies." jisung gestures towards himself. "we don't even have wires on us."

"we," chenle gasps for air. "we've been here before." he was beginning to lose consciousness, his hands desperately clawing at sungchan's arms.

"yeah, totally, and i'm the ceo of a multibillionaire company," sungchan sneers. "you two look like a bunch of rich kids going on a field trip who wanted to get back at their daddies." he looks down at chenle's outfit; a white button up with a black jacket, adorned with studs and leather straps. 

"we wouldn't even be here if we didn't," jisung glares at him. the taller was slowly getting on his nerves.

sungchan scoffs. "okay, fine then. tell me something only you would know." he easily glares back at jisung. "tell me something that only someone who’s been here before would know."

"lee sungmin." jisung grits his teeth. he's beginning to have a hard time thinking why it would be a bad idea to just deck him in the face and run.

the taller pauses, his eyes narrowing at him. his grip on chenle falters, letting him fall down on his knees as he takes in deep gulps of air. 

"how do you know that name?" sungchan asks once jisung gets chenle to his feet, covering his recovering body with his bigger one. sungmin was one of the most notorious trainers in their fight club, frequently abusing the boys with harsh punishments if he didn't win. luckily for them, his reign only lasted a four years- dying at the hands of a pissed off businessman who had enough of his shit. but majority of them weren't left unscathed, still recovering from the mental and physical toll that they were subject to. 

"you don't get to ask us that." jisung snidely replies. he turns back to chenle who was still heaving, flashing him a small smile. "i'm okay, dude."

"fair enough." sungchan didn't need to ask again to get his answer. judging from the other's abrupt answer, he was most likely someone sungmin harmed too. sungchan watches him fret over the other; the mystery of who they exactly are still stands. but they weren't hostile strangers at the very least. he reaches for the door behind him, opening it a bit with his body weight and stops. "aren't you coming?"

"wait, what?" chenle and jisung looks at him. he's still letting them in?

"you're letting us in?" jisung asks him. 

"yes," he answers. he flicks his hair, almost mockingly, "also, because i have to be somewhere right now."

jisung said instantaneously, still not trusting him , "where?"

chenle immediately follows with, "can we come with?"

"if you were paying attention, i said that there was a fight." sungchan looks back behind him. "my friend is in it."

-

after making a fuss about jisung leaving his supervision, jaemin lets jeno drag him towards one of the fights that seem to be grabbing most of the room's attention. the 16 year old seemed to have sober up, his eyes darting around to scan the daunting place. before he could say anything, a loud roar startled the couple.

"alright, alright- we're in our last round folks! be sure to cast your bets! we have two special kiddos today- they even came from the same dump! what a strong breed they are, they are our finalists!"

jeno tightens his arm around jaemin at the familiar tone of the announcement. it was a fight. 

he was able to find a small corner near the back, where they could spectate on top of the boxes that were hidden underneath the shadows. making sure jaemin climbed on safely, jeno diverted his attention to the fight.

his stomach churned to see two kids, who couldn't have been any older than him, being pushed into the circle. 

jaemin lets out a sharp gasp, "jeno, they're making-" 

the sleazy announcer enters the makeshift ring, his booming voice echoing over the crowd. he raises the microphone, "here is a two time reigning champion, we have shinhyun! may we get a word?"

a large man pushed his way towards the front. he grabs the microphone, "hello everyone! my name is park shinhyun as you all know and love. today, we return with a, heh, one of my favorites here."

he reaches back and pulls out the smaller kid who bursted into tears. shinhyun lets out a chuckle, "this is shotaro. he may look weak and a small bitch but he packs a pretty good punch. good stamina and doesn't let up. he does cry a lot though but it makes the show a lot more fun. i'm sure we all got to know him through out these past few weeks though."

the audience roars in agreement.

jaemin's jaw clenches at the way shotaro's eyes water at the crowd's response. his eyes were busy trained on the boy's body language, tuning everything out. it was obvious he was scared, even terrified of his environment. his shoulders were stiff and his head was lowered as soon as his handler moved on to talk about himself some more. jaemin could see the bruises that littered the boy's skin, the patches of sickly green and brown peeking out of underneath his jacket. his bare feet were hurt too, red and purple from overuse in a rough terrain. everything about this kid screamed experience. 

jeno turns to look at his boyfriend in worry, his silence being something too foreign. 

"time to start!"

ding ding ding!

jeno and jaemin startles at shrieking sound of the bell. the ring cleared out some more, giving the two in the middle ample space to fight. 

shotaro wobbles on his feet a bit but he ran towards the other to ambush him. he started aiming low at his legs so he could just knock him out. the grim look in his eyes told them everything, he hated doing this. 

the other boy seemed inexperienced, probably a new person that was just added in a few months ago. he had potential but he didn't have technique, sloppily falling through with his punches and not adding enough strength. he probably won just from sheer might and power. jaemin recognized his dodging technique to be something that was instilled in the first days of underground fight training. if they can't fight, then they were to drag on the fight as long as possible. 

shotaro's eyes flitted around, trying to find an opening that won't hurt his opponent too much and will knock him out quickly. the commands from his handler to fight him more brutally falling on deaf ears. he moves away in time from a punch and maneuvers his hands to chop at the boy's neck. 

a clean knock out. 

the crowd groans in dissatisfaction, disappointed in the anticlimactic fight but shotaro slumps in relief. he glances at his body on the floor, sorrow and guilt clear in his eyes. the announcer soon moves on to the fight next to them, thankfully pulling all the attention the other way. the two handlers loudly grumbles, going over to the bar to collect their bet money. they left the two on the ground alone, shotaro shakily making way to the door at corner of the room.

much to jeno's surprise, jaemin rushed down to follow shotaro as soon as the crowd cleared. 

"excuse me!" 

he turns around in surprise, his eyes widening to see jeno and jaemin as if he recognized them. but before they could introduce themselves, a voice called out to him.

"shotaro! i heard you won!"

a tall boy enters from the door, his bright doe eyes dimming in excitement when he sees the two behind shotaro. much to their surprise, jisung and chenle was right behind him, their eyes wide in curiosity.

"jisung?"

"chenle?"

"hyung?"

"jaemin hyung!"

shotaro looks at the two of them in confusion, rushing over to the boy who was looking at four of them with guarded eyes. he covers shotaro's body with his, still wary from the overly hyper boys that were asking too many questions.

jisung chuckles awkwardly, "hi jeno hyung…"

jeno raises an eyebrow, "what are you two doing?" he notices the specks of dirt that littered chenle's clothes.

"did you two do something stupid again," jaemin deadpans, stalking over to them as he look them over. "zhong chenle and park jisung, i swear to god-"

"i thought your names were donghyuck and mark?" the four of them turns at the inquiry. the tallest looks at them all accusatory. "who the fuck are you?"

chenle gives them a sheepish smile, "um right, sungchan-ssi. i'm so sorry, it's more of a formality, we just go by our nick names on the field and-"

sungchan stares at them unamused, making chenle quiet down after realizing that his sweet talking isn't working.

"hello," shotaro murmurs, his first words lilted in an accent. he held on to sungchan's arms as he peeks out around his body. sungchan looks down at him questioningly and he responds in a foreign language, shaking his head.

they held back a gasp, he was japanese. 

sungchan sighs. he gruffly asks, "shotaro said that you two were watching him fight." he points at jeno and jaemin who were flustered at being caught.

shotaro went on his tippy toes to whisper more. sungchan continues, "he says you were the only ones who weren't cheering. and that means something to him."

he pauses, "so, i'm not gonna call those bastards to come kick you out. but you're gonna have to explain yourselves and what you're doing here." he pointedly stares at chenle and jisung, "and no lying."

"wait a minute, so you four- you all used to live here?" sungchan asks, his eyes wide in shock. 

he invited them underground, where the kids lived in a cramped military style bunk beds and bare tables. the 'dorms' were right next to the dining area, where the kids were in charge of cooking for the day business as well. he was sitting at one of the dining tables, while dream members were on the beds as they explained who they were. shotaro sat next to him, his eyes going back and fourth as time went on. 

jeno explains, "yeah, a couple years back. few of our other friends lived here too. that's how we met each other." 

sungchan leans forward, "how did you.. how did you leave? why did you come back?" he was practically off the edge of his seat.

chenle whispers from his position at the top of the bunk bed, "our hyungs saved us." he sticks out a finger, declaring, "but we're here on a mission."

"mission?" sungchan furrowed his eyebrows. "what kind of mission?"

"a recruiting one." jaemin answers. "we come from, for a lack of better words, a pretty big family. we're looking for potential people that would make a good fit."

the tallest snorts, "recruiting? what are you guys, a gang?"

sungchan's laughing quiets down when he was met silence. he looked over them, taking in their rough appearances and their eyes watching his reaction. 

"..no way…"

chenle leaps down from his perch, handing sungchan two small metal tags. he shrugs when his hyungs looked at him in confusion, "i thought we were allowed recommendations." he points at the two at the table, "i want sungchan and shotaro to be in neo."

jeno sighs, "le, we don't even know if they'll want in-"

CRASH!

"what the fuck!"

a sound that was a cross between a broken glass and a gunshot interrupted their conversation. sungchan stands up in a flash, making sure to grab a bag that laid by one of the beds and grabbed shotaro's hand. he looks back at them and then walks towards the doorsteps of the entrance and rests his ears against the door.

BANG! 

jaemin and jeno stand up as soon as they heard a gunshot- they cautiously look around themselves to find any disturbances in the room. jeno slowly moves towards the two maknaes to protect them. 

sungchan was concentrating on what was going on, his eyes telling them to be quiet.

he joins them at the middle of the room and sighs, "i can't hear much. but i think it was a transaction gone wrong and it just escalated into a fight."

chenle and jisung look at each other simultaneously, was it the group of men at the rooftop?

sungchan rubs his forehead with his index finger and his thumb, frustrated. "we'll probably have to do the cleaning too, if those geezers keep on drinking up there." he looks back at them and mutters, "be careful, we'll have to go into the panic room if it gets any more dangerous."

CRASH!

everyone jumps at the loud shattering sound of glass, their heads turning to find a grinning haechan and renjun at the top windows that were level to the earth. haechan was leaning down on his knees, his hand holding another rock ready to shatter another window.

renjun pops his head in, "found you!" 

"good news! me and renjunnie passed out the tags already! bad news, we may have started a fight," haechan winces.

"huh?! what did you just say?" jeno struts over to the windows, his eyes glaring at haechan and renjun even with them being over five feet taller than him.

haechan and renjun paid jeno no mind, their eyes zeroing in on the two strangers next to their best friends, "who are those two?"

chenle giddily answers, "sungchan and shotaro! we just met them, i gave them our tags too!" 

haechan claps in response, his head looking back behind him to see if anyone followed them. "nice to meet you, sungchan and shotaro! but we regret to inform you that-"

"-we're gonna have to get going, there are some men in black suits who really want our heads on a pike," renjun finishes for him. he smiles at a seething jeno and an unamused jaemin. 

"okay, let's go, you brats," jeno mutters. 

jaemin turns to give sungchan an apologetic smile, "sorry about that. um, please give our invitation some thought, you two seem really nice people and i can't wait to see you again!"

chenle follows suit and excitedly waves, "bye guys!" he whispers a bit more pleadingly, "please come."

jeno barks at him, "get over here already, i have to boost you up through the windows."

chenle giggles but he follows nonetheless. gracefully, he hops onto jeno's waiting hands, the older smoothly lifting him upwards towards a waiting jaemin who crept up the window already.

"hope we can see you two again!"

sungchan lets out a huff, sitting back down at the furthest corner of the room. shotaro trails behind him as he looks at the foreign objects in the taller's hands. 

the word 'byeol' was engraved in the silver metallic finish. the coordinates and a date a couple weeks from now, were the only things on the other side.

"they seemed like nice people." he offers, hoping to appease him.

sungchan hums, "yeah."

\- 

"taeyong hyung!" kun runs up to the red haired man who just arrived. he waited for the older to take off his outside shoes and slip into the customary slippers that the chinese branch requires them to wear. he makes sure to lower his voice when calling him hyung, the international diplomacy isn't the greatest in byeol.

"hey kun." taeyong smiles at the younger. he patted kun on the shoulder in greeting as he takes in the scene of the other branches and groups arriving. one of the men from daegu loudly curses as he slams through the doors. he whispers, "is it just me or is everyone slightly more bitchy today?"

kun makes a noise that was supposed to resemble a laugh and nods. "well ever since the boss assigned us recruitment as a priority, everyone's been slightly more and more cranky." he said, "can't really blame them when we all get called in on short notice."

taeyong starts to follow the crowd that was entering the big main hall. he mutters, "this is getting old." he takes off his black jacket and tucks it into his arms. 

in the short five months the new appointed boss has lived, he had called for an organization wide meeting about seven times. six times too many for trivial matters- with subjects that could be easily answered by his own assistants. this meant that taeyong went on numerous flights, taking a toll on the man who hated the multiple trips. kun got the better end of the stick, getting easier access to the mansion. by opting to stay in mainland china until the boss learned any better, kun helps communicate with neo if anything happens. he said that he was thrilled to do anything to help them out, although his tired eyes say a different story. 

the two of them quietly settle down on the mats on the ground along with the others, the atmosphere clearly tense and suffocating.

a short fat man enters through one of the back doors, his arrogant voice reaching everyone in the room. "greetings everyone."

taeyong grimaces, literally even his voice is annoying.

"i'm sure you're all wondering why i called all of you here today," he began. "and that is because i was wondering about any progress you should've made in your recruiting process as of late."

this? this was why he called for them? taeyong wanted to leave and jump off the building.

he looks at one of the men in front of him expectantly, "how are you, minhyun? what's your status?"

the poor man laughs nervously, "well, um, sir- of course we have to train the people first and it's hard to find capable people who are competent enough." he takes a glance at their boss' bored expression and grumbles, "we'll be ready by the date sir."

the man lets out a nauseating sounding hum. he sits up, "this is a message to you all. we have to make sure byeol stays strong and powerful, we need more numbers."

both taeyong and kun bitterly think, no we don't. you have no taste for leadership.

"dismissed!" one of the secretaries called out. the enormous doors began to open for the leaders to leave, most of them grumbling about how much of a waste everything was.

taeyong jogs towards kun who was waiting for him at the entrance. he gives him a knowing look. 

kun offers, "he's a fucking prick." 

taeyong laughs, his eyes focused on the collective mass of cars slowly leaving the premise. he waits a couple of moments for the coast to clear. he darts his eyes. "you said you wanted to talk?"

kun nods, following taeyong's gaze. "yeah, i found something that might be worthy of our concern."

the two find themselves in the older's car, the windows tinted for any means of privacy.

"so you're saying that the whole reason he's doing this is because he wants to merge byeol with some chinese gang?" taeyong repeats. he can't even begin to comprehend how terrible of a choice it was. he should've seen it coming, with the insistent efforts for them to expand their numbers and reach. 

kun grimaces, "yeah. i didn't believe it either until i find him meeting up with some weird looking guys at the local restaurants."

taeyong shakes his head. "the audacity of that man. just 'cause he was the heir doesn't mean he gets to sell this whole damned organization out."

"never mind that," kun waves it off. "how are the boys doing back in seoul?"

taeyong's smile came back at their mention. "they seem to be good, according to johnny and ten. they just got word of the recruiting so johnny assigned them to their areas." 

kun raised an eyebrow, "oh really?"

"yeah," he sighs. "jeno said that he wanted to back to gangnam, that fight club place remember?"

"oh, fuck… really?"

"yeah, he said he got it under control and i trust him, he's grown a lot but i just… i worry about them. especially when i can't be there for them."

"i get that, i feel like it's been forever since we've seen them as kids," kun softly muses. 

taeyong groans, "seriously, it feels like i'm sending them off to the wolves with this recruiting shit."

"what about the others?" 

the older lets out an indignant noise. "xiaojun, doyoung, and taeil called me before they left their designation."

"and?"

"doyoung got them to just throw them at people and call it a day," taeyong sighed. kun laughs in disbelief.

"sounds like him." 

"xiaojun said that he was trying his best to stay on track and talk to people correctly but taeil and doyoung won him over," he sighs. "with their laziness of course." 

"hopefully, haechan will have better luck."

"knowing those group of kids, we can't hope much."

kun takes a look at his leader. "hyung, you'll know that they won't get hurt, right?"

"i know." he drawls. "i'm just worried everyone else in a five feet radius will become collateral damage."

kun laughs but he quiets down when he realizes taeyong was kind of right.

("wait did doyoung really-"

"yeah, he threw the tags so hard, it hit a couple of people." taeyong massages his forehead. "xiaojun was calling me on the verge of tears while him and taeil were laughing about it."

kun covers his mouth with his hand as he laughs.)

-

"this is why i said keep the jumping in the field," yuta remarks, watching jungwoo and lucas fuss over a pained hendery. he sat in their headquarters' living room, his legs lazily arranged as he views the mess in front of him.

the four of them came home from a job, ending earlier than anticipated after jungwoo slipped in the cyanide poisoning a lot faster than they had originally calculated. hendery, bored from the lack of action, put on a disney movie to entertain himself as they wait for everyone to come home. his excitement, however, could not wait and had him replicating elsa's let it go choreography. his recklessness had him slipping on the smooth tile floors and landing hard on his back.

"seriously, hendery. i thought you learned not to go so hard when you're wearing socks," ten scolds, his eyes watching the scene as he resided in the kitchen. "especially when you're doing 'let it go' again." 

ten came home earlier than his boyfriend, having to start early on neo's biweekly family dinner. he brought sicheng and yangyang with him, both of them still reeling from the extra lesson that ten gave them in the car ride home. the youngest whimpered, "i never want to see it ever again. the nightmares, the nightmares."

"oh, grow up, you asswipe. i just showed you how to perform seduction," ten retorted. he mimed the action of punching his ex-apprentice's head. "and you need to know that crap if you're going to handle information gathering."

yuta, brightening up at the sound of his boyfriend, opened his arms wide. "sicheng! come here, come here! i missed you!" he crooned a bit more quietly, "ten said you learned seduction tactics?"

sicheng rolled his eyes, "it's nothing big, just how to get a guy unconscious without any drugs." he lowers himself onto the older's lap and tucks himself into his neck, "i don't think i'll be using it though, it requires me to get into bed with the man." wrinkling his nose at the thought of his precious boyfriend having sex with another man, yuta growled in agreement.

hendery whines in response at ten's reprimand. he lets out another dramatic sob when lucas returns with an icepack and tosses it to him. hendery quickly snaps out of it to snatch it perfectly, clicking his tongue and makes a kissing noise with puckered lips. "thanks, bro," he shoots an imaginary gun at lucas.

lucas makes a small face of disgust and turns to follow jungwoo to aid ten in the kitchen. 

yangyang giggles as he walks towards hendery. he affectionately flicks the older's forehead and decides to plop himself on his chest.

"ouch," hendery snickers. "shouldn't you be off doing your job? did you get that bad at it already?" 

yangyang scoffs. "hey! you should be lucky i'm even here at all, i could've been stuck canvassing the areas like xiaojun and the others are."

lucas peeks from the kitchen door, "canvassing?" he wipes imaginary sweat from his forehead and wanders to sit beside the two on the ground. "we're recruiting already?"

"yep," yuta raised his hand all the way from the sofa. he tenderly lifts it around sicheng who was already beginning to doze off as he rattles off the list, "haechan and the others are.. at gangnam and xiaojun with the rest are at sea port."

hendery whistles, "so we're doing the initiation ceremony soon, eh?"

yangyang mumbles, "oh, fuck that devil's incarnate."

lucas looks at him puzzledly, "what are you talking about? it wasn't so bad for me."

"lucas, if you haven't noticed, you're six feet tall. plus, you're built like hulk." the youngest raises himself to sit up. yangyang wasn't insecure about his strength and power, not in the slightest. he just hated having to fight in such a confined space, where everywhere he turned would obstruct his path. he was used to the open field of abandoned bridges and alleyways, where he was able to jump and fling himself wherever he'd like.

"yeah, but you're still strong. i've seen you knock over guys twice your size all the time." 

"i still hated doing it!" he waves his hands, swatting invisible flies. "way too many people for me, i could barely move in there." 

"kid, you still did amazing in there." yuta interrupts. "sicheng could barely sit down when he was watching you guys." 

hendery smiles as he glances at his sleepy hyung. although he barely shows it, sicheng had a soft spot for the foreign members, probably because he knows how hard it was to adjust to everything. a new country, a new language, a new hidden set of rules of living underground- everything was hard to take in. he was more focused than usual when some chinese natives were being tested. his breath always hitched with his fingers clutched around himself as the ceremony commenced.

"hendery was so nervous," yangyang teases. "he wouldn't stop running into me asking me for help every five minutes."

"oh shut up! i was genuinely confused at the time, i could barely hear that dude's instructions." his cheeks burned red at the memory. "so when everyone started beating the shit out of each other, i just joined in." 

yuta cackles at the memory. it was hard to keep a straight face while in the viewing window, where all he saw was a blur of black beginning to take people out and pausing to look up in confusion every couple of minutes. the expression on ten's face was priceless.

lucas ponders, "do you think we'll find good enough people? i hope they're nice people."

before anyone could respond, loud footsteps rain down on the house from the upper floor.

"we're home!" chenle excitedly announces. he and renjun threw his shoes off his feet in a hurry, sure to greet ten and jungwoo bustling in the kitchen. 

yuta calls out, "how was it?"

jaemin and jeno enters the living room first. the latter tiredly says as he moves for his room, "haechan and renjun landed us in the middle of the fight."

ten and jungwoo returns from the kitchen, their eyes filled with concern. "wait, what now?"

jisung flopped onto the sofa next to yuta's. he stretches out his limbs and groans, "haechannie and injunnie instigated a fight between a bunch of rich guys." he tries to dodge chenle throwing himself on him, but lets him lean on him anyways. 

chenle chimes in, "big, big fight."

"it wasn't even that big of a deal!" renjun had his mouth full from taking a taste test of the dinner. "like i said on the ride home, haechan just happened to bump to those guys. and they all got pissy because we stepped on their big ass shoes or whatever."

haechan nods furiously. 

after they ran away from the fight club, chenle excitedly asked them what exactly happened and to spare no details. haechan and renjun started to fight over the details, ultimately deciding that it was neither of their faults; it was the guards for having such shoes so big that it was inevitable people would trip over it. it also didn't help that they had such ugly faces that made haechan wanting to slap them when they started screaming profanities at the duo. 

lucas, hendery, and yangyang were now looking at them in amusement.

jungwoo cocks his head, "did you pass out the tags at least?"

chenle perks up, "we did!" he starts to bounce. "we met some pretty cool people too!"

yuta and ten turn to give each other a look, a fight club isn't a place you want to meet anyone new.

"who?"

jaemin saunters over to the pantry, looking for food as he reports, "sungchan and shotaro. chenle and jisung stumbled on sungchan and we found shotaro." he bites on a granola bar as he carefully navigates back to the couch. 

"shotaro? that's japanese." yuta beams at the thought of having a fellow japanese member in the family. 

"are they good fighters?" yangyang asks.

"they're really good!" chenle answers. "even sungchan." he and jisung makes a face together, reminiscent of the chokehold he had the older in. 

"were they looking for a trouble in a fight club too?" ten gives them a pointed look.

jeno leaves his room, now changed into more comfortable clothes. he joins them in the living room, "no, they were actually part of the scene. they were fighting kids like us."

everyone falls silent. they can only imagine the mistreatment and abuse that they went through.

"i was hoping they could join us!" chenle interrupts. he softens, "we can take care of them too."

"well, i hope they make it through the initiation." ten returns to the kitchen, his eyes glued on his phone. he grumbles to jungwoo, something about why this was why he waits for kun and doyoung to come home to cook.

yangyang groans at another mention of the ceremony.

hendery snorts, "get over it, you big baby. you're not even fighting in it anymore."

renjun curiously peers at the clump of their bodies on the floor. "what are we talking about?"

"what happened with the initiation ceremony," lucas explains. he smiles down at yangyang, "yang yang just had a traumatic experience."

"ooh, we wanna join!" the six of them joined the chinese members on the floor. 

"it was so fun, not gonna lie. i probably had the organization's best record," jisung smiles cheekily.

haechan raises an eyebrow. "eh? no way. i have it." he puffs out his chest playfully.

"did too!" the youngest argues. "jeno hyung can back me up on it!" 

he turns to jeno who just ends up shrugging. "don't come to me for keeping track of your hits." jeno devilishly grins. "i was busy kicking ass."

"oooh~"

"our jeno is getting confident, eh?" 

"my favorite moment was when me and chenle started fighting over the same dude." renjun recalls. he and chenle spent majority of their time following each other around, the latter doing it because he wanted to annoy him. (but pretty much everyone else saw the way chenle kept to himself until he saw renjun run by him, his shyness slowly going away to stay with the older)

"get your own guy!" renjun called, his feet colliding into the unsuspecting man's forehead. he turned around to see chenle right on his feet with a angelic smile, grabbing his shirt to throw him the other way- making him stumble on his feet.

"not happening."

"i'm gonna fucking call jeno on you, you brat." renjun hissed. chenle simply laughed and turned back to knee the confused guy in the stomach.

"he was mine and you know it!" chenle leans forward to stick out his tongue. "pretty sure i had more coins than you anyways."

"you wanna talk count?" renjun nears closer. "i had seven."

"so did i!" 

"okay, well- i landed more kicks than you!" 

"all you do is kick anyways!" renjun lets out a loud gasp.

"ok, ok- calm down, kids." yuta interrupts. "everyone did well, no need to compete." 

"hyung, he-"

"mhm, i sat in on all of your initiations, you kicked all their asses."

renjun and chenle pouts, glaring at each other. this isn't finished. 

the latter turns to the quiet chinese members, "what about you guys? have any exciting stories?"

hendery shrugs lightly and thinks for a bit, "yangyang falling and causing everyone to fall around him." the younger slaps his arm, "dude!"

haechan laughs, "you have to explain that!" 

"oh my god, i got this!" lucas sits up. "okay so basically, he was running around because literally everyone was bigger than him." he spreads his arms to show how the height difference was. "and then i think xiaojun called him so he turned to look and i guess he didn't realize where he was running to- so he tripped over someone's arm."

yangyang's cheeks are burning red at this point. 

"but that's not all," hendery adds. "after he fell, he tried to grab on to something and he accidentally took out some guy right next to him while he falls to the ground. and turns out a bunch of guys were really close to him so they started to collapse to the ground too." 

haechan drops his jaw, "you're kidding." he turns to yangyang and exclaims, "dude, i didn't know you were so cool!"

the said male mumbles, "i didn't even remember that part."

hendery pipes up, "do you think we can watch the one coming up soon?"

"oh, we'll definitely watch all of it, we have to!" chenle insists. 

"to watch sungchan and shotaro?" jisung replies. sometimes, he's scared of chenle's eagerness to be around violence. 

"yes." he pauses. "also because i wanna see everyone else get pummeled."

renjun teases, "because you can't do it yourself? you devil child." 

"okay, that's it." chenle stands up to chase him around, cursing at renjun as the two run into the kitchen- much to ten's cries of getting them to leave. everyone in the living room laughs at their antics.

back on the ground, jisung yawns, "yuta hyung, do you know when johnny hyung will get back? i need to talk to him for a bit."

yuta speaks with a unamused tone, "he's right there, what are you talking about?" he points behind them.

"boo."

much to their surprise, two bodies were standing right there. one of them was leaning close to jisung's head, lowering his head down to whisper into his ear.

he yelps, "ah! hyungs!" 

he whisks around to see johnny and jaehyun laughing down at them, the former clapping at the success of his stunt. he purses his lips in annoyance, "when did you get home?"

jaehyun walks over to yuta, fist bumping the japanese native's outstretched hand. "we got home a couple of minutes ago. came home to see chenle and renjun screaming at each other in the back there." he gestures behind them in the kitchen.

"where's mark?"

jaehyun looks at haechan, "he's out for a bit, we sent him to stake out a couple of suspicious looking guys."

haechan frowns, still bummed out that mark hasn't come home yet.

"you were too preoccupied with the everyone else to notice us, how could you? you forgot all your training," johnny wipes an imaginary tear from his face. jisung stares at him unimpressed. 

sticking his tongue out, johnny waves at everyone else and then makes a move for the kitchen, singing out his boyfriend's name. 

"ten~"

"what do you want, suh?" 

"i- you're not even gonna kiss me? i'm hurt, babe." johnny weeps, his voice trembling in sadness. you could practically hear the shiteating grin he had on.

'i'm handling two trouble children right now, help me or leave." ten retorts. he yelps a couple of seconds later and begins to curse. "jungwoo! can you help me out here and hold this for me? stupid fucking pan."

johnny pops his head from the kitchen door and calls for them, "hey guys, you wanna help ten hyung cook?"

jaemin looks at jeno and jisung who looks back at him. chenle and renjun seemed to quiet down, meaning that jungwoo got them to behave. he pushes himself off the ground and wipes invisible dust off his pants, "might as well save the family from food poisoning if it's chenle and renjun cooking."

"i heard that!" chenle screams.

"you were supposed to!"

meanwhile, lucas was trying to convince his two brothers off the floor. he tries, "okay, the faster we finish cooking, the faster we can eat."

hendery looks at him through one eye for a couple of seconds, his hands stilling from patting yang yang's head. 

"okay! let's go, yangie."

while standing up, yang yang grumbles, "stop calling me that."

"so," yuta looks up at jaehyun who was taking off his jacket. "how was your mission?"

"went fine." jaehyun sighs. "we bumped into people from other districts, got some gossip along the way." 

"gossip? okay, i'm hooked, what's up?"

jaehyun shakes his head, "nah, it's stuff about the organization, not so good stuff either."

yuta's playful smile faded, his eyes narrowing and lowers his voice, "wait, what?"

jaehyun averts his eyes, still wary of the anyone overhearing. "it's some sick corruption shit." 

"just tell me."

jaehyun sighs, "i don't know how true this actually is but-" he bites his lip. "jungkook told me that our new boss, he wants to merge with some foreign mafia. that's why he's rushing this recruiting stuff so quickly. he just wants to up our numbers, join some group and then let them manage us."

"huh? is that even allowed?" yuta looks at him in shock. 

jaehyun shakes his head. "definitely not, i don't even have to imagine what they'd do with us by then."

"they're probably gonna get rid of us."

yuta and jaehyun rotates to see a groggy sicheng slowly waking up. rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, he mumbles, "kun hyung, he said something about that. if they were to merge with us, they'll probably do that or they'll start making us go against other people." he hums, pleased, as yuta begin to pat down his unruly blonde hair.

"how are you so sure?" jaehyun asks. 

"it'll be the only logical reason. he's a shitty boss and he's letting them play with us," sicheng taps the side of his head with his index finger. "it's kinda obvious, considering what's going on. it's just disgusting." 

"does taeyong know?"

"kun is probably telling him right now." sicheng distinctively remembers the older calling him a couple days ago, in a hushed voice as he relays to him the news.

yuta sighs, "can we even do anything about this?" 

"probably not," johnny interjects. he was trying to clean his face which was smudged with baking powder as he walks near them. "we're still only one branch out of the tens that exist all around, we can't do much unless it's a whole uprising against them."

he pauses and looks at yuta, "and that means no unexplained absences, yuta."

said male scowls. 

a loud clatter interrupts their conversation. 

"we're back now!" taeyong announces. he starts to laugh when mark ducks under his arms to run towards the busy kitchen. "gee, no thank you for picking you up although we were the ones who flew from overseas?"

mark yells, "thanks, hyung!"

taeil warns him, "be careful!" he and kun follows him into the kitchen, being alerted by chenle's squeaky laughter and renjun screaming at him to stop. 

kun yells over the noise, "what's going on in there?"

ten replies, "oh, nothing! just chilling while we figure out how to put out this fire chenle started." kun rushes to help them.

haechan excitedly screams at mark's appearance. "mark!" he jumps on the older and starts to coo, followed by chenle. 

mark was supposed to follow them on the fight club run, but he couldn’t make it last minute. johnny and jaehyun called him out to the field midway through the door. much to haechan’s disappointment, mark had to go the opposite way- kissing him on the forehead in apology. 

doyoung reminds, "you guys are gonna make him topple." he watches their resident troublemakers attempt to balance themselves as kun and ten heave a boiling pot of water over to the sink. 

yuta blows his hair out of his face and groans, "for fuck's sake, doyoung's back."

"i love to bother you too, nakamoto." doyoung enters the living room, his eyes already narrowed into a glare. after taking off one of his leather gloves, doyoung tosses it at yuta, making him yelp.

sicheng silently laughs and covers his mouth with his hand, "you're still fighting about that?"

johnny looks between the two, "what are they fighting over now?" he silently marvels at how doyoung has beef with every one of their leaders (himself included).

"yuta accidentally broke doyoung's car window a couple of days ago," sicheng supplies, his eyes full of amusement. "they haven't stopped fighting."

"i only broke it because doyoung won't stop telling other people my fucking internet history." yuta accuses.

midway through taking off his jacket, doyoung stops in his tracks and starts to point at him. "hey! ever think that you probably shouldn't buy that stuff? seriously, out of all people i did not expect it to be you." 

johnny whispers to jaehyun, "should i be concerned.." 

"nah, it's probably something kinky."

taeyong runs in, breathing heavily. "doyoung, they really need you right now."

a frustrated scream came out of the kitchen. the others looked at the one of the very few of them that can actually cook and not set the kitchen on fire. doyoung sighs, "of course they do."

he looks at the rest of them, “i refuse to be the only one cooking for all 21 of us, you’re helping me, too.”

"hyung?" jisung peers through the slightly open doorway of taeyong's office. "i need to talk to you." 

it was after dinner, a long three hours of catching up and arguing between everyone. the dinner was just too good (bless ten's heart), and everyone ended up drunk. everyone, literally everyone, was off their shit. jaemin and haechan began to chase their same age members around demanding for affection, much to their dismay. jungwoo, taeil, and doyoung decided to dig out the old karaoke machine and sing only the bad songs that would cause the tv speakers to blast their ears out. taeyong and johnny watched, always inserting a 'woo!' and 'let's go!' while on the side. sicheng was busy laughing and pointing at hendery's state who was, surprisingly a sad drunk. the poor boy started crying when he noticed xiaojun going to the bathroom and pounded on the door. yuta and xiaojun had to drag him all while on the floor. ten had to deal with yangyang being 'clingy and annoying', the younger constantly asking him whether or not he loved him or not. it was a shit show. 

but thanks to johnny manhandling everyone (much to their hurt ego, except for lucas he loved it) with taeyong using his megaphone, everyone else was sound asleep. (at 2 am.) 

except for jisung. 

"oh, come in, jisungie."

he opens the door to see yuta, johnny, and kun standing in the room- all of them looking over papers as they mutter amongst themselves. 

taeyong greets him with a joking smile, "shouldn't you be sleeping, young man?"

jisung snorts but he straightens his back, "no-no. i feel like i really need to tell you what happened today."

"while you were canvassing?"

"yeah."

the other three in the other side of the room starts to watch taeyong and jisung curiously. johnny raises his head, "what is it?"

"i, um," jisung brushes the back of his head. "i don't know if it's worth mentioning, but i heard something really suspicious today when i was at gangnam today."

"what did you hear?"

"there were these group of guys in suits, me and chenle found them at the rooftop. and they were being really secretive. something like about expansion? it sounded like buying." jisung furrows his eyebrows. "but- i don't get it because they're not under us, hyung. i don't recognize them. they're not in byeol, so why would they be trying to expand- there isn't any other clan that operates here besides us, right?"

taeyong stares at the floor for a bit, trying to decipher what jisung just said. he holds up a finger to the maknae, telling him to wait, as he walks over to his desk. he reaches for a paper and reads it over, kun joining him. 

"oh, fuck." he breathes.

taeyong turns to jisung in panic, "did they have an accent?"

jisung looks at his leader in surprise, "y-yeah, it sounded like they did. it was subtle.." he looks over to see kun whispering to yuta and johnny, their eyes hardening. "how did you know?"

"they were chinese." kun answers. "chinese mafia members that are working on killing off byeol." yuta faintly curses.

"wait, what?" jisung's eyes were wide open. 

taeyong brings his fingers through his hair in frustration. "they're doing it both ways, those fucking assholes."

"hyung? what's going on?" jisung looks between taeyong and kun. "are we going to be okay?"

the older looks at him conflicted and turns around to the others for help. 

"we have reason to believe that byeol planning on merging with another mafia in china. they're either going to cut all international ties off or make us work for them," johnny asserts. he backs down, "but we don't know for sure yet."

"it isn't set in stone yet, sung. don't worry too much, yeah?" taeyong insists.

"what do the guys on the rooftop have to do with it though?" jisung asks. "they're just talking about buying…. right?"

kun sighs. "if anything, they're there to buy out any illegal franchises. keep the area squeaky clean and when you get to own it, no one thinks you're dirty."

"they'll think you're doing it a favor," yuta scoffs. 

"but we're going to be okay, right?" jisung repeats, his eyes big as he waits for taeyong to answer.

taeyoung could only hesitate. he doesn't even know yet. this activity was illegal, discussing possible downfall of your own mafia- wasn't even allowed. much less, talking about corruption. he can't talk to anyone else about it. he can't pull strings to bubblewrap everyone and send them to fucking hawaii. he couldn't do anything. he could only wait and see when is the right time. 

"i don't know," he admits. "but i'll try my damned hardest to make sure we will be." 

"i can't believe they're trying to throw us off our own turf." kun mumbles.

"mark did say that while he was tailing somebody, he found out that they were looking to buy businesses and places, too." 

taeyong looks at johnny in surprise, "how'd you know to follow them?"

"jaehyun had a hunch, doyoung mentioned that people are gonna start keeping track of us as soon as we begin to recruit people. so we had him follow this guy that kept watching me and ten around our hotel," he supplies.

"so we have competition." kun sighs. 

yuta shrugs, "can't expect anything different, we live in the capital of korea after all."

"will we ever tell the others?" jisung asks. he jerks his head towards the walls. 

they all turn towards taeyong, deep in thought. he sighs, "it's probably best to. i don't want any of them to not know about this, they'll probably get targeted one way or another. it's best we communicate with each other and-"

jisung slowly creeps over to taeyong's door and opens the closed door in a fast motion. out comes chenle and half of them who were leaning against the wood in hopes of eavesdropping. the other half were behind them, standing over them looking in veiled curiosity. 

"fuck." haechan curses. 

johnny sighs, "why aren't you all asleep?"

"jisung woke me up with his loud walking!"

"they told me that we had a robber with the loud walking."

"i came to convince them that there wasn't a robber."

"i only wanted to watch." doyoung blankly offers.

"never mind that, what do you mean someone's trying to destroy byeol?" renjun stands up from the floor. the others follow him, all crowding around the doorway asking more and more questions.

taeyong sighs, looking at the eagerly waiting faces. he looks back at johnny, kun, and yuta- who just nods. might as well tell them now.

"i'm sure you guys have noticed the unusual path we've taken as byeol these days," he starts. they make a noise of agreement. some of them grumble.

"was there an ulterior motive to all of this?" hendery asks, his voice tense. 

johnny makes a hissing noise, "yes, unfortunately."

kun slowly walks up to them as he explains, "we think that they're doing this right now because they want to gain as many members as possible. they do this so that they end up as powerful as they can be."

jeno echoes, "they? who's they?"

"chinese mafia." yuta says. he stuffs his hands into his pockets, slouching as he walks forward, "according to kun, they're called chang long." 

"blue dragon." chenle whispers. 

"yes." kun nods. "we have reason to believe that our current leader is working with them for something; money, protection, guidance, we don't really know. but what we do know is that one day, whenever they seem fitー they'll merge us together, making us work under them."

taeyong walks back to his desk, slightly sitting on the edge as he brushes his hair with his fingers. "not only that but they're also making moves around seoul right now. mark said that he's seen some unfamiliar people looking to buy estates. and jisung said that he encountered some foreign members at the fight club that were discussing buying something."

jisung shrinks at his group members, turning to look at him in surprise, chenle especially. 

"so, what do we do?" xiaojun questions. "we can't just take this standing down, can we?" he clenches his fist at the possibility of his home being taken away.

johnny shakes his head. "we can't but it isn't the right time either. they believe that their ruse is working and they haven't fully transitioned in their power yet.." he swallows and pauses, "so what i've been thinking is that, we should talk to other people here. jaehyun says that jungkook was the one that told him the rumours, maybe we can talk to him and the others about this too."

taeyong leans back on his hands as he nods. "johnny's right, we can't stage an uprising so suddenly. we need more support. i have something in mind for that when it comes to play.”

“for now,” he looks at their awaiting faces. “we can’t do much except for examining the people they will make us accept for the recruiting ceremony.”

the harmony of sighs and whines come quickly enough making taeyong roll his eyes. “are you guys that eager to fight someone?”

“yes!” jungwoo and haechan answer abruptly, their heads turning in awe as they realize that they answered in unison. their exaggerated faces and screams make the others laugh.

taeyong grips the bridge of his nose with his thumb and index finger. 

“go to sleep. that means all of you.”

-

“this is so boring, hyung.” chenle leans over to sicheng who was standing next to him as they entered the massive abandoned train station. the quiet atmosphere was so suffocating, you could hear a pin drop. the young teenager was honestly expecting more than this. he was expecting grand stadiums and hundreds of levels like that one anime jisung and yuta always watched had. if they were going to pay for a hundreds more men, shouldn’t they exert more effort in making it look good? 

after spending about a week talking to their associates, taeyong has been called to the recruiting ceremony, including his entire troop. as yuta describes it, they were stuffed into the grim reaper’s clothes and shipped off to the location at 6 am. 

“behave, lele.” sicheng whispers, his eyes scanning the massive building. it was one of the organization’s old arms dealing places, it was probably full of old and creaky tunnels that had secrets in its corners. a small part of him wanted to go and explore, another part of him is looking at the secret compartments and raiding it for any left behind clues.

chenle pouts, his arms crossed as he shifts slightly when jeno moves forward in front of him. the older turns to look at him in warning. “i didn’t even say i was gonna do anything.” 

for the fifth time since they got there, chenle goes on his tippy toes to see how many more men are left to file through the long winded stairs to the makeshift viewing area. how many floors were there in this goddamn train station, chenle swears. he visibly sighs in relief when he spots the faster pace they’re beginning to be going in at. he excitedly grabs his hyung’s hand and jumps in place, finally being able to be on the other end of the fighting. 

behind them, xiaojun peers down below with curious eyes. the train station was barely taken care of in its time, with moss and dust collecting in the corners every couple of feet. it was still big, the train tracks probably having enough space to tie lucas and johnny down- head to toe. the platforms' area were nothing to sneeze at either, the guards and men looking like ants from their height. the gigantic pillars had small time graffiti on it, but one can still marvel at the golden sheen from the sun that hits it. from its size and seemingly good architecture, one can only ask-

"what happened to this place?" doyoung asks from the front of the line. he was looking down just like they were, with jeno clinging on to his shoulders. "looks like something out of a fantasy video game."

"as far as i know, abandoned." taeyong answers. he raises his shoulders and keeps his hands in his pockets as he stares ahead. almost like he was ready to fight at any given moment. always typical of him, that’s the only side he shows to strangers and people in their organization alike. 

taeyong wasn't particularly wrong. when byeol rose from a small organization in the country (as small as you can get with a mafia ring) to an internationally linked one across multiple countries, they no longer bothered having random control centers in random places. instead, they started to designate factions to different cities.

ten whistles, "what a pity, this place is beautiful." 

he leans against the railing of the walk way and perks up, "woah, look, we got a bunch of people coming in!"

they clamber closer to where he was to find a line of a small group of men enter through one of the station's exits. "they look like wannabe gangsters." jaemin muses. johnny and jaehyun burst into laughter behind him. the others try to stifle a smile, their eyes still glued on the entrances and exits. 

taeyong finally steps onto the top of the stairs and waits for them, "are you guys gonna come any time soon or should i ask them to get you down there as well?"

doyoung follows with the others quick on his tail. "we're good!"

taeyong rolls his eyes as he looks at them messily choosing their seats. 

the young ones were arguing over who would sit in the front row that leaned over the area, climbing over one another to get a better view. jaemin was kicking at renjun, as he held on to jeno and jisung who were looking like they regretted everything at that moment. meanwhile, ten and doyoung slyly move into the empty seats while smiling like they had no idea what they were doing. kun and chenle somehow found each other again. kun was trying to push chenle off an edge seat as he starts to talk to him in rapid chinese. chenle was sitting down, pride and smugness sitting on his face serenely. yangyang and haechan were sitting next to each other peacefully behind them, mark sitting close by to make sure haechan didn't say the wrong thing again. they're followed by (thankfully) a quiet jungwoo, lucas, yuta, and sicheng as they converse amongst themselves. xiaojun and hendery were glued to the hip as they sat close together, led by taeil who helped them with what they usually do during initiation ceremonies. jaehyun and johnny follow taeyong closely, still laughing at the group of men who came in earlier and jaemin's comment about their fashion.

after a couple minutes of invitations to fight and insults being thrown around, taeyong clears his throat to get their attention. "behave."

"yes sir." 

johnny leans back in his seat as he arches his neck behind them. he looks back to announce a bit dramatically, "at ease, we got company arriving." to their left was another faction in the byeol organization, in charge of busan. one of them was jaehyun's good friend, jeon jungkook, who brightens up when he spots him. jungkook waves off the others behind him, gesturing them to go ahead and sit.

he rushes over to clutch jaehyun's hand as he stands up, "dude! nice to see you again!" jaehyun chuckles goodnaturedly, "yeah, it's been a while." 

jungkook looks over to taeyong and shrugs at him, "joon hyung filled us in, y'all really about that?" the silent words still loud between the two. throughout the past two weeks. taeyong has been talking to namjoon since the latter had a lot of access to the weapons since they overlooked a sea port. although there wasn't definite choices made, there was still talk about a possible overthrow of the current boss.

jaehyun nods as if it was obvious, "i mean, yeah. we have to be, it's literally them selling us off.. you are too right?"

"yeah, definitely! it's just.. not expected, you know? like all this scheming and shit." jungkook crosses his arms, as he looks at the platform beneath them and sighs. "still though, we got you guys' back." he raises his fist, waiting for jaehyun to meet it with his.

"yeah, dude." 

jaehyun watches jungkook go back the other way, sitting back down as he notices the others' curious gazes. he raises his hands in self defense, "what?"

doyoung breaks the silence, "you talk like an american fratboy." jaehyun pouts but he says nothing else. his boyfriend really wasn't wrong.

"looks like others are arriving," yuta observes. across from their seats, more and more men walks in, their faces set stone cold. they look at taeyong, making him stare back with just as much intensity. it wasn't a rare occurrence for people to instantly find conflict with them.

taeil chuckles, "this is like the only time we'll ever see taeyong look this scary in front of us." taeyong rolls his eyes, still maintaining eye contact with the others as he addresses them, "watch it."

peeking down at the platform beneath them, jungwoo hums. "chennie, you wanna see if your friends made it here?" he and lucas decided to leave their seats in order to get a look at the new meat. more people began to show up, all sorts of them with different statuses and influence arriving. there were men who looked like they worked 9 to 5 jobs as well as people who looked like they were farmers. all of them seem to want a life of money and violence, jungwoo notes.

chenle runs over to him dutifully, with haechan and renjun hot on his heels. he steps on one of the bottom rails to get a closer look to find a familiar duo. "sungchan is abnormally tall, we can find them if we just try harder." jisung snorts, sungchan would most likely be offended if he heard any of that.

"what do they look like?" ten walks over to help. 

"sungchan has curly brown hair, really tall. he looks like a deer when he isn't scary and mad. he kind of looks like taeyong hyung. and shotaro has gray hair, he's small compared to sungchan," chenle lists off. he pauses, "sungchan probably is in front of shotaro trying to protecting him right now, judging by how they are with each other." the others aw's at chenle's implication.

"is that them?" yuta points over to the right. he quietly joined them, volunteered to use his expert eyesight to help find sungchan and shotaro. there was a pair walking in, their eyes wide as they're still getting used to everything around them. they were wearing dated collared jackets, one of them going with a hoodie underneath and the taller wearing a flannel tied at the waist. true to chenle's words, he was in front of the shorter one with his hands in his pockets, as if he was daring anyone to fight him. similar to the cold gaze he had when he cornered chenle and jisung, sungchan glared at everyone around him. his once soft eyes were now hardened, and his body was tense and stiff from being around so many strangers. shotaro still looked around as if he was a child exploring a forest, he was too entranced to act hard in front of everyone. he still had his hood on, being able to avoid anyone's eye contact if anything happened. if you looked close enough, you could find that shotaro was holding on to sungchan's jacket sleeve. 

chenle nods giddily, "yeah! sungchan's in the front and that's shotaro with the hood." the rest of them mouth their names, getting familiar with it.

"he does look like taeyong, wow." ten leans his head on his hand. sungchan, although his features were obscured by the far distance, had sharp cheekbones just like their leader. his nose bridge was even similar.

lucas echoes, "handsome."

"i don't know if it's the hood but shotaro looks like a baby here," haechan comments. renjun makes a noise of agreement. 

yuta was quiet but it was clear he was excited. his eyes stayed glued on the two as they made their way to the middle of the platform, cautiously glancing around. he was undoubtedly excited for a possible addition of a japanese person. he walks back to his seat with an extra jump in his steps, "the amount of times i'm able to shit talk about you guys if i can speak to shotaro in japanese." doyoung and sicheng roll their eyes, yuta was acting like they didn't learn japanese just for him so he would have someone to talk to.

“oh my god, oh my god, they’re starting.” lucas mutters. his eyes were wide as he clutches jungwoo’s hand in excitement. the crowd started to assemble closer to one another. the others join them in looking at the scene beneath them, even taeyong calmly walking towards the railing to get a closer look.

up ahead at the center of all the seats, was their boss. their wrinkly, pudgy shaped boss as he makes his way through the door with his bodyguards. they follow lucas’s gaze to him, making faint sounds of disgust. 

“why does he look like that?”

“hyung, that’s mean.”

johnny looks at haechan all accusingly, “you’re literally laughing right now.” 

the younger makes no attempt to hide a shit eating grin, “i was just thinking it.”

“yeah, we all were.” 

their object of disgust clears his throat, commanding all the attention in the room on him. his high pitched, nasally voice picks up, “hello, all of the byeol organization. i would just like to say welcome. thank you for choosing to participate in today’s initiation ceremony, i’m sure my uncle would be so pleased to see you all.”

jaehyun stops doyoung’s outstretched middle finger from going any farther.

“i’m sure you’re all strong in your own rights, but we look for a certain kind of person to join our mafia. we don’t tolerate any weaknesses, only the strong will survive here.” he rests his hands on the rail as he looks down on them. “before you entered, my men have given you each a gold coin. they are yours. you will protect them. you will have to collect at least five coins to join byeol, there are no rules. do what you must do to dominate over your opponents.” 

he looks over to his left and nods.

a loud CLANG echoes throughout the station, setting the battle into action. 

-

“sungchannie, we’re really going?” shotaro stands at the bathroom door. he was nibbling his bottom lip, nervously fidgeting with his sleeve as he looked at the other in worry. two weeks had past and the day was amongst them, the date on the token that was left in their hands.

sungchan had his head lowered into the sink as he brushed his teeth. he shrugs, "i don't see why not. we don't have a fight scheduled today, do we?"

shotaro shakes his head, his eyes trained on the other wiping his face with a rag. sungchan had woken him up early, earlier than usual ー at a startling 3 am. he gave him a small smirk and a black jacket that the two had stashed away form a bar fight that erupted years ago. the black jackets that they saved for leaving the fight club, to hide their identities. he whispered, "get ready, we're gonna go to that mafia entrance thing."

after the strange encounter with the group of six, sungchan didn't really speak about participating. he did ask shotaro vague questions about leaving, whether or not he could handle running for days, if they didn't have food would he be okay or not. shotaro didn't ask any follow up questions, just answered with an enthusiastic yes. sungchan had a knack of keeping it in his head, whatever plan he thought of. shotaro trusted him, he hasn't failed in any of his ambitions. he learned japanese just from asking shotaro to speak about his day, he learned how to talk like a dealer by listening to the people by the betting tables. shotaro knew that the ceremony was something sungchan spent forever thinking about, he knew the younger like the back of his hand.

shotaro whispers, sure not to alert any of the others still sleeping. "are we really running away?" if they were to step into another place, they’ll be in progress of leaving already. 

sungchan walks over to shotaro, the older's toothbrush in his hand. he waits for shotaro to open his mouth dutifully and brushes his teeth for him. he murmurs, "i don't know yet. but it can't hurt to see what they were talking about, right?" he had his thumb supporting shotaro's jaw. "also, i recognized them. well, some of them." sungchan looks up and tilts his head, as if he was thinking things through.

"they fought here. one of the guys that you said watched you, he was a fighter here. he was one of the best, i know he was. ni-ki told me, he recognized him across the way. the one next to him, jaemin, i think. old songyi never stops talking about him- said that he was one of the standards they built our training around."

shotaro makes a muffle noise of acknowledgement, his mouth still full of toothpaste froth. 

sungchan sighs, his eyes narrowing. "they're good people. i'm sure they are, judging from ni-ki's stories." 

he leads shotaro to their sink and waits for him to spit, "so yeah, i want to see what they're up to now, see what they have going for them. and us? we deserve what they have going on, too. you, especially, taro." he raises his shoulder, as if saying what they have got to lose. he adds in japanese, sure to emphasize each of his words, "wake from death and return from life."

"i get it," shotaro answers softly. 

sungchan hums, using the washcloth to pat the shorter's face gently. "you in?"

"yeah, i'm in." shotaro grins, getting sungchan to smile back. 

"now dress warm. it's cold outside." 

thanks to sungchan swiping a map from one of the old men's back pockets, they were able to navigate the still-quiet city side with the bright lights. their wariness increased when the farther they went, the more obscure the city had become. they entered a door that was tucked on the inside of an alleyway, between two abandoned buildings. the door led to a bigger tunnel that had other doors leading to it, with other men entering just like they were.

sungchan and shotaro found themselves among all sorts of guys. tall, short, smart-looking, rich, conniving ー all which had them on edge. the more they walked along the dirt road and the concrete walls, the more looks and glares they got from random strangers. even a couple of jeers and laughs from a group of random teenagers had sungchan wanting to turn around and sock them in the face. instinctively, sungchan pushed shotaro behind him. 

he breathes as more and more men join them on the way in, "what the fuck is this.." 

shotaro whispers, "this is kind of exciting." his eyes were darting around them, the poorly lit tunnel casting shadows on his face. 

he sharply looks at him. "don't jinx it."

"i won't." shotaro flashes him an exhilarated smile. it was clear he was interested now, the tension in the atmosphere had his blood pumping. 

at the end of the tunnel, there were a row of men that held boxes at their hips. with sunglasses on to cover half their face, they stoically instructed them to grab whatever was in it. it was another coin, a gold one that was cool to the touch. there was a hole in the middle that had them poking their nails through it. 

shotaro gazes at one of the guards quizzingly. the man said nothing in response. 

another row of men had ids in the boxes, prompting them to clip them onto their clothing. sungchan doesn’t even know how they knew their names.

they follow the others through the massive door at the end, where it opened up to a train station. shotaro gasps, although it was clear the station was old ー the place looked regal, even with the grassy corners and dirt that littered the floor. the windows and pillars were barely held together, even then, the magnificence of the architecture was breath taking.

"'taro, hold on to me," sungchan murmurs. he brushes against shotaro's hand to push it up, making him grip on to his jacket sleeve. 

"i'm not a baby anymore, 'chan." shotaro is still holding on to sungchan as they walked in. 

"i know but i still wanna protect you when i can."

"i do perfectly fine on my own. i don't need your help." he was teasing him.

he looks at him, incredulously, in shock at both shotaro's statement and his confidence to be joking when he rarely looks at fights in a mirthful light. "you can't just say that when i helped you get dinner last night."

shotaro looks at him back. "you act like i'm not older than you." 

before sungchan could retort, a loud booming voice interrupts their quiet conversation. the two of them look up to see a man sitting at one of the center ledges, surrounded by bodyguards. if sungchan looked around now, he could see that there were a bunch of people lined at the top of the station. some of them were watching them, the others were sitting and talking to one another.

shotaro shifts closer to sungchan, the close proximity with everyone else and the overly formal language confusing him. 

after listening briefly, sungchan looks back at shotaro. "they said that the coins they gave us, we're supposed to fight for other people's. at least five. they said that there's no rules or limitations."

shotaro glances at his coin and nods. sounds simple enough.

"can you handle it?" sungchan rolls his neck to work out the kinks. he leans his weight on either side of his legs to shake off his limbs. he had confidence in shotaro but it never hurt to ask.

"i think i'll be okay."

he proudly squeezes shotaro's hand, "i'll see you later, alright?"

"i'll get more than you," shotaro quips, a smile breaking out on his timid face.

sungchan hums, his eyes glued on the announcers above him. "definitely not but okay."

CLANG!

sungchan veers right and slams his hand on a man's shoulder, to taunt at him and get his attention.

sungchan liked fighting, he really does ー as opposed to his attitude in the fight club. he just likes to be detached whenever he fights, which was opposite of their statute. he has a distaste for ever getting up close, preferring to using his body to distance his opponents far, far away from him. it made it easier for him to map out his strategies, determine their weak points, anticipate their next moves. his body control was of its own league; short, sharp movements that had his opponents in shock of what just happened. it was different from shotaro's fighting for sure and isn't powerful and strong like the styles the gamblers at the club liked. but it worked for him.

his overwhelming height was an advantage, helping him tower over the shorter men. the guy screams, running for him with his hands interlocked, raised above his head. before he could get anywhere, sungchan kicks him in the chest, spinning around to land another punch at his neck. the other chokes on his spit, stumbling back in surprise and letting go of the coin that he was holding on to. sungchan zeroes in on the coin and reaches for it mid-air, letting him fall on his back harshly with a big oomph! 

looking down, he was groaning and glaring at the teenager in contempt, still in shock that he was bested by a scrawny, overgrown kid. sungchan smoothly tucks the coin into his back pocket and pulls his opponent up by his shirt collar, knocking him out just for safe measure.

sungchan turns around to see two bulky men coming at him with weapons that glinted in the light. one of them had an ugly scar on his cheek, as he swoops in to stab him with a knife. the other was blonde, who had a metal bat.

"ooh, that's a no-no."

sungchan fluidly dodges one another, sidestepping the bodies as their weight made it hard for them to sustain balance. he uses his shoulder to slam his body into theirs, making them fall down even harder. 

scar guy shakily got back up on his feet, faster than his partner who laid on the ground in pain. he advances on the taller, having sungchan back up cautiously, almost bumping into the others. sungchan kicks his attempts to stab him away, letting him tire himself out. 

on his last attempt to strike, sungchan grabs his wrist, pulling him forward and knocks his head against, rendering him stunned. he knees him in the stomach and elbows him at the his neck and back. scar guy gasps in pain, dropping his knife in shock. sungchan then kicks at the back of his knee, making him collapse on the ground before he could recover. 

triumphantly, sungchan turns his attention back to the blonde who was slowly getting back up. he strolls over to the bat that was released during the fall and he picks it up by the handle. sungchan squats and turns the blonde on his back, slamming the bat vertically on his forehead before he could open his eyes and realize what was going on ー knocking him unconscious. 

the count was up to three. 

he swiftly grabs their respective coins hidden among their bodies and looks around to see the situation around him. everything was a blur, with bodies hitting against bodies and skin against skin. notably there were more men lying on the ground, some with more blood splatters and bruises than others. looks like the competition is relentless. sungchan stretches to look for shotaro, wanting to see how he was doing during the chaos. 

there shotaro was, looking right back at him, breathing heavily. shotaro's hood was down already and he had his sleeves bunched up at his elbowsー a sign that he was fighting with more energy and focus than usual. his knuckles were starting to bruise and sweat was gathering at his forehead.

sungchan raises a hand, saying hi, having shotaro return the same gesture. the taller made an 'ok' sign and looks at him pointedly. shotaro nods jovially, complete with an eye smile that only happens when he was in his element. looks like shotaro was having the time of his life, judging by the four unconscious men that were lying at his feet.

sungchan gives him a small smile, silently saying 'i trust you, so be careful'. 

shotaro shrugs at him, looking upwards in defiance. he gestures below him.sungchan could hear him now. 'i always am.'

smirking, sungchan returns his attention to the men in front of him. 

a bald man came flying at him, clad with a whole suit that has been ripped at the edges. his eyes were lit with madness and fury, roaring at him. his thundering voice drips intimidating and danger, his build even holding his own against sungchan's.

sungchan, now at ease because of shotaro's happiness, dodges the attacks freely. his legs were intune with each other, practically dancing on his toes. but before he could fully turn his back and counter on his own, baldie wrap his arms around sungchan's chest with tremendous force. he presses in as hard as he can, cutting off sungchan's air supply.

sungchan takes a staggering breath, using all his might to raise his forearms and shoving into the man's stomach behind him. after baldie starts to choke on his own tongue, sungchan kicks his crotch and then, rotating to sock him right up the side of his head.

four. sungchan mentally ticks off, balancing himself on one leg as he quickly leans back from dipping to get the bleary baldie's coin. 

a harsh push from the back interrupted his mental victory and he whisks around to see a skinny man with a bright purple buzzcut, sneering at him. the thing that knocked into sungchan roughly was a knocked out body that buzzcut was wielding around like a toy doll sungchan winces, that must've hurt. with each movement he made, there was a jingling sound- the sound of several coins rubbing together. this one is a powerful one. 

buzzcut stalks towards him, fastening his pace with his head ducked low as if he was an animal. he abruptly throws away the body as he ran. buzzcut launches himself to knee him, only for sungchan to move aside and guide the body downwards to the ground. 

he breathes harshly as he stables himself on his own two feet. buzzcut picked himself quickly, swiping his legs underneath sungchan's legs to knock him on the floor. after a few seconds on his knees, sungchan rushes to drag him onto the ground too, climbing up his body with punches.

buzzcut coughs violently but still brings up a leg to kick at sungchan's head, repeatedly. sungchan is pushed backwards, the ringing in his ears not fading fast enough for him to see the punch that was aimed at his face.

sungchan lets himself fall back and wraps his legs around buzzcut's waist at the last second and then, threw him to the side. he hurriedly pulls himself up to kick him over and sits himself on his chest, pounding his face over and over.

buzzcut struggled for a bit, lazily bringing his arms up to block sungchan's punches but fell shortly after, from sungchan's strength and willpower rushing through his blood.

sungchan stays on his limp body a couple of beats after, just to make sure that he was really out cold.

after no signs of resistance, sungchan sighs, shuddering as he raises himself back on his feet. he remembers to rustle through buzzcut's pockets, coming up with about three coins. sungchan shrugs, that should be enough. his blood was still pumping in his ears as he walks. pressing the top of his hand to his lip, pretty sure that he got a bruise somewhere in the fight. 

he takes quick look at the back of his thumb and sighed at his condition. yep, he was bleeding. and he has a total headache. he groans when he realizes.

shotaro was totally winning this bet.

he turns around to stare down at the buzzcut guy, it was all his fault, he could've gotten more coins if it wasn't for the fight they had it for so long. he looks for the strikingly purple blur only for him to see the dirty ceramic tile floor of the train platform. and that's all to see as he turned around to look around him. he finds shotaro and a few other men looking around in confusion as well, with bodyguards in suits dragging out the unconscious people who didn't make it.

it was nearing the end, sungchan realizes. 

he walks over to shotaro who was breathing harshly. the bloodied spots on his head had sungchan worriedly grabbing at the shorter’s body.

“are you okay?”

shotaro looks at him in confusion and nods slowly. he takes the bottom of his sleeve to wipe at his forehead and makes a humming sound, realizing what had him so worried.

he shakes his head, “not mine.”

“seriously. how are you the stronger one but you got bloodied up so bad?” sungchan looks at him in amusement. shotaro’s clothes were dark with dirt and blood splotches, but he seemed to be breathing on two feet.

“i like the fight, ‘channie.” shotaro gives him a small smile, as the two are escorted to one of the doors as they clean up the dirty area. 

shotaro contrasted sungchan in so many different ways. where sungchan was tall, lanky with long edges, shotaro was small and had softer corners. sungchan was intimidating while shotaro was warm. their differences couldn’t be any more clear when it came to their fighting styles. while the taller was detached and distant, shotaro was up and personal. he preferred to feel his attacks connect, and that would only be possible if he could feel his opponent feel the impact. adding on to his aggressive personality when it came to fistfights, shotaro is strong. it wasn’t expected, since he was always around sungchan who was younger than him but towered over him. but shotaro had enough stamina to keep his strength pumping through his punch and kicks. 

it was rare for his real persona to come out whenever he fought in the club. he was too cautious and wary about the other kids and their safety; he rarely went all out. the only time he has ever witnessed shotaro fully capable of killing someone and not blinking an eye was when they first met. shotaro was a throw away from traffickers, who said that he wasn’t worth the trouble of fighting back. he was on edge everywhere he went, the suspicious glances that he would throw at them soon escalated into brawling with other kids whenever he felt threatened. 

from his quiet corner of brooding, sungchan was interrupted in his meditation and peace so he went over to get the japanese native to shut up. sungchan was able to calm him down with his limited japanese, and it helped them get closer than anyone else. sungchan grew to learn about shotaro’s limits and triggers, helped him trust in him at the very least, and how to live without feeling like everyone is out to get you.   
then on, sungchan and shotaro were inseparable for years. 

sungchan hums, cleaning his minimal injuries on his face as best as he can, with the flannel he unraveled since the beginning. he peeks at shotaro’s hand which was clenched. 

“how many did you get?”

shotaro blinks and holds out his hand, revealing nine coins. “nine.”

sungchan laughs in disbelief and shakes his head. “two short, i give up, you win.”

“hyung,” shotaro supplies, his eyes filled with amusement. “you’re supposed to say hyung.” sungchan gave him lessons in korean lore and the limited literature that he had soaked up in his seven years of education before he was snatched up.

sungchan squints, “i haven’t called you hyung in four years, we’re not gonna start with that.”

shotaro shrugs, his attention being diverted by the people in front of him.

a man in suit, with a military cut and a wire that led to the back of his neck, entered through the door way. he had a clipboard and he was looking through his black sunglasses.

“alright,” he spoke. “separate branches already claimed several of you and asked that you join them. please be on standby as i read your names.” he looks and sounds like he doesn’t want to be there. 

shotaro looks at sungchan. “you think we’ll get picked up by someone shady?”

“nah, i’m leaving if we do.” sungchan shakes his head. 

“sungchan and shotaro. your group is on the tenth floor, seventh room.” 

sungchan grabs shotaro’s hand and bids the man thanks as he shows the way with his hands. he makes his way into the train station’s hallways. the hallways were just as fancy as the train station. the lights are flickering, there’s scurrying sounds all around them. 

“sungchannie, you look like a mess.” shotaro comments, his eyes flitting over sungchan’s bloodied face.

sungchan rolls his eyes. “i know.”

“that’s going to be your first impression?” he changed to japanese at the end.

“it’s fine, ‘taro.” they turn to the right, a single room is at the end, the seventh room.

shotaro returns sungchan’s grip on his hand. “i’m feeling awfully nervous and i don’t know why.” he murmurs in his native tongue, he’s nervous. 

“we’ll be okay, i got us.” they near the entrance, hearing crashes and yelling in the room. shotaro’s breath hitches. 

sungchan takes a breath and pushes the door inside. 

if his five second glance over was correct, there were twenty one of them. and every single one of them was loud.

he finds the guys who were in the fight club weeks earlier, they were engaged in other conversations, some of them screaming at the top of their lungs. chenle was talking to jisung, wearing the black version of his outfit that he wore when they first met. haechan, the boy who threw a rock down at their window, was whispering to another boy with black hair bowl cut (was that the right term?) and blonde highlights. renjun, the boy who wore a beret before, had his hair down as he talked to a (really) handsome guy who looked the same height as sungchan. jaemin and jeno talked among themselves, with another guy who was leaning up against the wall. few of them were sitting, hunched over a laptop and whispering in what feels like chinese. another group was in a corner, with their arms crossed as one of them, a red head, talked to them sternly.

shotaro whispers. “woah.”

the red head whisks around, his eyes softening as he takes a look at them. “hello, my name is taeyong.” he offers his hand, letting sungchan simply shake it. he flatly replies.”right, hi.”

sungchan’s breath caught in his throat, about to introduce themselves when he realizes that they already knew their names. 

"everyone say welcome." taeyong smiles at the 21 men who were staring at the new additions like they've never seen people before. some were curious, some were cautious, some weren't the most impressed. the silence was deafening.

one of the members in the front leaned forward, his hair moving with his lengthy body. he offers a small smile, "wassup? welcome to our team, you did a great job back there."

another member peeps up from the back, this time, smaller than the first one. "the one on the left looks taller than ten hyung, we have another giant on our hands!" haechan snorts, earning a disapproving look from taeyong.

ten quickly stands up from the opposite side, slapping his hands on the glass table, "shut the hell up, yangyang!"

taeyong turns to look at him with a tired smile, “right, well. welcome, we’re in charge of the seoul area.” he gestures to chenle behind him who was practically vibrating in his seat, “chenle told us a lot about you, he was actually partially the reason why we selected you guys to join us.” 

he clears his throat. “i’ll introduce you guys.”

“this is johnny.” the one who greeted him earlier, with fluffy and bouncy hair. johnny waves at them, smiling at them in comfort.

“ten.” he was miffed at the comment from yangyang but his expression immediately changed when they looked at them. he gave them a quick wave, his eyes looking over them. ten’s eyes slightly narrowed at sungchan, huffing once he realized how tall the teenager was. 

“this is jaehyun and yuta.” they were standing at the corner. jaehyun had on something that was similar to the suits one of the bodyguards were wearing. he flashed them a grin before turning back to his partner. yuta had black shaggy hair that hung over his eyes, but he was looking at shotaro intently. he was biting his lip, seemingly deep in thought.

“doyoung,” he was slender and had almond shaped eyes that regarded them curiously. next to his side was someone shorter than him and had black hair that was gelled. ”that is taeil.”

another one with brown hair and delicate features lifted himself off the wall and looked at them, walking up behind ten. “jungwoo.”

taeyong turned to the table and began to introduce them. one of them was still looking at the computer and was muttering to himself, his well defined eyebrows scrunched together in concentration. “that’s xiaojun.”

the one next to him, turned his attention from the screen to them. he rested his chin in his palm. “hendery.” he nodded at them, his princely face still neutral.

xiaojun occasionally looked over to another man who was looking at a journal. he read off what was on it, the pretty choker on his neck glinting in the light as he shifted constantly. “the one on the other side is sicheng.”

“kun.” behind hendery was a man with blue-ish hair. he had his arms crossed and half his body was turned away from them as he talked to doyoung. 

“i’m sure you’ve met our younger ones already.” taeyong sighs, the six of them waves at sungchan and shotaro excitedly. “the tall one is lucas and the other one is mark.” 

“hello.” shotaro whispers. half his body was covered with sungchan as he peeks at the strangers in front of him. 

yuta runs to him, his hand outstretched as he talks in rapid japanese. “hello, nice to meet you. my name is nakamoto yuta, i’m 21 right now! i moved to seoul when i was 16 and i’ve been living with these guys ever since!” he juts a thumb to the back. “it’s so nice to meet you, you have no idea how long i’ve been waiting to meet someone who was japanese and isn’t a total asshat or some sort of traitor. please tell us you guys are staying-!” 

sicheng wrapped his hand around yuta’s arm, pulling him backwards at shotaro’s slight whimpers of fear as he walked back, slightly overwhelmed. sungchan stares at yuta in surprise and apprehension, his fists by his side. 

sicheng lowers his head in apology and he sheepishly says, “sorry about that, yuta’s just excited to see someone who is japanese after so long.” yuta pouts as he is dragged back to the back wall of the room. 

sungchan bows his head, trying not to break his calm facade, was this a bad idea? “nice to meet you all as well.”

“your fighting style was so cool,” jungwoo starts, he gently looks at them. “it reminds me of jaemin’s.”

jaemin’s cheeks reddened at the mention of his name but he didn’t say anything else. he nods in agreement.

“and shotaro was crazy strong!” haechan interrupts. “i haven’t seen you fight last time but i can definitely say that you deserved that night’s win.” they all agree.

shotaro’s eyes crinkled as he smiles. “thank you.”

“you guys came from the same fight club we came from.” jeno walks up to them, his body lax. “did you guys get permission to even leave?”

sungchan shakes his head, “no, we just snuck out.”

mark makes an ‘o’ with his mouth and claps lightly. “respect.”

“so you guys ran away?” johnny asks them.

“i guess that’s the right word,” sungchan looks at the floor, suddenly bashful. 

“well then,” taeyong crosses his arms. “i guess you’re going to start living with us right away then.”

“really?!” shotaro hiccups, his eyes are wide. 

“i don’t understand, you don’t even know us.” sungchan looks at them confused. “we could be spies for all you know.”

“you could be.” the leader nods. “but we all know that you guys were abused just like our kids are, we know that you risked a lot just to come here. we know that you committed yourself to a lot.” he tilts his head at chenle and the others, “and if they were any good judges of characters, you’re good kids. you’re powerful as well, we would be stupid to not accept you and take you in right away.”

sungchan still couldn’t believe it. “what…”

johnny stands up from his seat and walks towards them. “look, kid. all of us were in a position like yours at one point, okay? none of us were born into this. some of us were in the streets, the others in the foster care system— but we all found each other. we became a home for each other, a safe space for all of us.”

he looks right at sungchan in the eye, “so are you in?”

sungchan hesitates, looking at shotaro seeing what he thought in the matter. the shorter nods enthusiastically, his eyes conveying his excitement. 

he breathes, “right, we’re in.”

from the back, chenle stands up on a chair and whoops.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you so much for reading! ;3 i'll write more of this mafia/gangster au when i can!! i feel like mafia/badass concepts fit so well with nct because there is so many of them so i love reading and writing about them :)
> 
> ( please be nice to my baby and say that it is good , it's been a two month process of hot chocolate and adhd )


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